Deutsche Post abandons Austrian Post takeover
German postal company Deutsche Post has abandoned its plans to take over Austrian sector company Oesterreichische Post AG (Post) as the political framework over Post partial privatisation is still unclear, Deutsche Post said on March 14, 2005.
In July 2004 German media reported that Deutsche post had given an ultimatum to the Austrian government, which was later denied by the German company.
Recently Austria has proposed Post privatisation via the stock exchange.
Post largest shareholder state-owned holding company OeIAG sees the future of the postal company either listed on a stock exchange or managed jointly with a strategic partner like Deutsche Post.
The OeIAG supervisory board is not expected to discuss the Post privatisation at its meeting on April 7, 2005.
The final decision on Post partial privatisation was initially planned to be taken in 2004 but now the decision is not expected earlier than the autumn of 2006.
How attractive Post will be depends on the cost saving programme within the company, which includes the closure of 357 postal offices nationwide.
Post AG doubled its 2004 net profit and increased its turnover by 4.0 pct year-on-year to 1.6 bln euro (USD2.15 bln).
